Anti Vietnam War

Protest against the Vietnam War The Arts - MusicFamous Speeches

Wednesday, 28 August 13

Khe Sanh


*Khe Sanh: US garrison base in South Vietnam since 1962. *Its importance was a result of its position (near demilitarised zone)*US forces based at Khe Sanh were very well placed to patrol the nearby Ho Chi Minh Trail. *The base also acted as the western end base for the demilitarised zone that separated the North and South Vietnam. *By 1968, there were 6,000 Marines at Khe Sanh. The base was an obvious target for the North Vietnamese. If they could defeat the base, they would have an almost unobstructed control of the northwest section of South Vietnam, which would allow them to exploit the Ho Chi Minh Trail to the full. *For this reason, General Giap (north vietnam) placed a great deal of importance on capturing Khe Sanh – to the extent of surrounding the base with 20,000 men.


http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/timeline_vietnam_war.htm


http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/ho_chi_minh_trail.htm

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/ho_chi_minh_trail.htm



http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/vo_nguyen_giap.htm

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/vo_nguyen_giap.htm

Khe Sanh was officially shut on July 5th. North Vietnam made great play out of this. Nearly three-quarters of Hanoi radio

broadcasts for a week after July 5th were devoted to what they described as their victory. In America, a changing tactical

situation was given as the reason for the closure and the closing of the base was never referred to as a defeat. In fact, even after July 5th, Marines still operated around Khe Sanh and engaged

the NVA in combat. The government made the point that overwhelming NVA forces had failed to do what they had set out

to do – capture the base, and that it was a US command decision to leave the base as opposed to a decision being foist

onto them by successful NVA activity.


"Khe Sanh” (1978)I left my heart to the sappers round Khe SanhAnd my soul was sold with my cigarettes to the blackmarket manI've had the Vietnam cold turkeyFrom the ocean to the Silver CityAnd it's only other vets could understand

About the long forgotten dockside guaranteesHow there were no V-day heroes in 1973How we sailed into Sydney HarbourSaw an old friend but couldn't kiss herShe was lined, and I was home to the lucky land

And she was like so many more from that time onTheir lives were all so empty, till they found their chosen oneAnd their legs were often openBut their minds were always closedAnd their hearts were held in fast suburban chainsAnd the legal pads were yellow, hours long, pay-packet leanAnd the telex writers clattered where the gunships once had beenBut the car parks made me jumpyAnd I never stopped the dreamsOr the growing need for speed and novacaine

So I worked across the country end to endTried to find a place to settle down, where my mixed up life could mendHeld a job on an oil-rigFlying choppers when I couldBut the nightlife nearly drove me round the bend

And I've travelled round the world from year to yearAnd each one found me aimless, one more year the worse for wearAnd I've been back to South East AsiaBut the answer sure ain't thereBut I'm drifting north, to check things out again

You know the last plane out of Sydney's almost goneOnly seven flying hours, and I'll be landing in Hong KongThere ain't nothing like the kissesFrom a jaded Chinese princessI'm gonna hit some Hong Kong mattress all night long

Well the last plane out of Sydney's almost goneYeah the last plane out of Sydney's almost goneAnd it's really got me worriedI'm goin' nowhere and I'm in a hurryAnd the last plane out of Sydney's almost gone


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inKlN0ScObA&feature=c4-overview-

vl&list=PLF9C48C2C2738F31A

Cold Chisel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTjvG4WJD_A

Recorded version

Live version


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inKlN0ScObA&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PLF9C48C2C2738F31A












Martin Luther King Jnr Beyond Vietnam

4 April 1967, Riverside Church Meeting, New York City

“We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East

Harlem. So we have been repeatedly faced with the cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools. So we watch them in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor village, but we realise that they would never live on

the same block in Detroit.”

http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/liberation_curriculum/speeches/beyondvietnam.htm




Jane Fonda actress, writer, political activist

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLvnDXZZ5u0






http://www.examiner.com/article/10-top-anti-war-protest-songs-about-the-

vietnam-war

Top 10 anti-Vietnam war songs


http://www.examiner.com/article/10-top-anti-war-protest-songs-about-the-vietnam-war






Bob Dylan - Blowing in the Wind (1963) - This song was written and recorded by a then 21-year-old Bob Dylan as the United States escalated their involvement in the Vietnam War. The song, which gained larger prominence when it was re-recorded by the folk trio, Peter, Paul and Mary, became one of the most famous protest songs to come out of the 60s as well as an anthem for the African-American Civil Rights Movement.


http://www.examiner.com/topic/60s-2

http://www.examiner.com/topic/60s-2

(1984) – The Bruce Springsteen single from the biggest selling album of 1985 was written to be a song about the troubles of a working class man forced into the Vietnam War but was largely considered to be a patriotic song. It was so popular that the Reagan administration asked to use it as part of the reelection campaign but Springsteen, a strong liberal, nixed the idea.

Bruce Springsteen - Born in the USA


(1969) – This intense Vietnam protest song by Edwin Starr and written by one of Motown’s top composers, Norman Whitfield, says it loud and clear “war, yea, what is it good for - absolutely nothing!” It was a #1 hit in 1970 and was later performed by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band during their tour of 1985.

Edwin Starr- War (What is it good for?)


Eve of Destruction (1965) This song written by a 19-year-old P.F. Sloan, was made famous by Barry McGuire and contained the lyrics “you’re old enough to kill, but not for voting, you don’t believe in war, but what’s that gun you’re toting” and “you can bury your dead, but don't leave a trace, hate your next door neighbour, but don't forget to say grace.” It was the #1 song in America around the time the United States entered the war.

P.F Sloan- Eve of Destruction


(1967) – One of the most memorable moments of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair of 1969 was Country Joe MacDonald’s solo performance of this blatantly obvious anti-Vietnam War song with the chorus of “and it’s one, two, three what are we fighting for? Don't ask me I don't give a damn, next stop is Vietnam.”

Joe McDonald-I Feel like i’m fixing a die rag


The Unknown Soldier (1968) – This anti-war song was Jim Morrison and the Doors contribution to their opposition to the Vietnam War. The Unknown Soldier is likely in reference to the Tomb of the Unknowns military memorial at Arlington Cemetery and the song contained a sequence that resembles a military funeral honours ceremony complete with a firing party.

Jim Morrison-The Unknown Soldier


Orange Crush (1988) – This song by the alternative rock band R.E.M., was in reference to the government’s use of the controversial herbicide known as Agent Orange to remove trees and dense foliage that the Viet Cong would use during the Vietnam War.

R.E.M.-Orange Crush


Activity:

Step 1: Embed a youtube clip or a recording of your chosen song into your wiki.

Step 2: Find the lyrics to your song and embed them

Questions:1. What is the overall message of the song? What feeling and mood is it portraying? 2. Are there any particular aspects of the war it is against or referencing, or is it a general anti-war theme? (pull lyrical examples out of your chosen song if you can). 3. Who is the intended audience for the song, and did it have any particular outcome or agenda it was hoping for? 4. Using iMovie, create a visual clip for your song using images, drawings, film etc. you can find to suit the songs point and feel.

Choose one of the ‘protest songs’ on the list (or find your own) and complete the following.....


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Anti Vietnam War